Kamala Harris makes right move on race and policing

California Attorney General Kamala Harris takes the oath of office from California Supreme Court Chief Justice Tani Cantil-Sakauye as her husband, Douglas Emhoff, looks on Monday at the Crocker Art Museum. Harris touted her fight against organized human trafficking after being sworn in to her second four-year term as California's top law enforcement official. Harris is widely expected to be preparing for a run for governor or U.S. Senate.
Eric Risberg
The Associated Press

California Attorney General Kamala Harris takes the oath of office from California Supreme Court Chief Justice Tani Cantil-Sakauye as her husband, Douglas Emhoff, looks on Monday at the Crocker Art Museum. Harris touted her fight against organized human trafficking after being sworn in to her second four-year term as California's top law enforcement official. Harris is widely expected to be preparing for a run for governor or U.S. Senate.
Eric Risberg
The Associated Press

As the state’s top law enforcer, though, Harris has steadfastly avoided controversy, most likely so she doesn’t set off any political firestorms before her next run for higher office. So it was heartening that Harris used her inauguration to deliberately step into the touchiest and most important discussion about race in America we’ve had for decades – the use of deadly force by police during arrests.

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Harris also said she will bring law enforcement and community members together to talk about use of force and bias. The attorney general’s office hadn’t yet worked out the details of how these conversations would take place, where or when, other than they would most likely start this winter. “As law enforcement leaders, we must confront this crisis of confidence,” she said.

These are good plans, but we think Harris can do even better. As the top law enforcer of the country’s largest state and woman of color, hers is an important voice in the discussion about how race factors into policing. She must do more than facilitate discussion; she should take a public stand and some bold action that would make California an example for the rest of the nation.

It took the riots in Ferguson, Mo., after the shooting death of 18-year-old Michael Brown, and the protests in New York City over the death of Eric Garner after police used a chokehold on him during an arrest, to force the nation to come to terms with the fact that people of color are being killed by police at higher rates than Caucasians.

That’s true in California as well. Information from Harris’ office obtained by The Sacramento Bee shows that the numbers of people killed while in the process of being arrested have risen, albeit slowly, over the last decade, even while violent crime was decreasing. It also shows that about two-thirds of those killed during arrest are either Hispanic (42 percent) or African American (21 percent).

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For National Sunshine Week, we honor the importance of open and transparent government. So, perhaps Gov. Gavin Newsom can ask law enforcement groups why they’re working so hard to undermine Senate Bill 1421.